Raid on Meigs Harbor

The Raid on Meigs Harbor occurred in the autumn of 1776 when John Graves Simcoe and a detachment of the 40th Regiment of Foot raided a Continental Army safehouse in Meigs Harbor, Connecticut in an attempt to capture the rebels there. However, they walked into an ambush by Benjamin Tallmadge and his men, and Simcoe was wounded and captured, while the other 19 British soldiers were killed.

Background
In the autumn of 1776, the British Army of General William Howe arrived in New York City and forced General George Washington and the Continental Army to retreat from New York and into New Jersey, where they fled the 32,000-strong British army. The fall of New York was a heavy blow to American morale, and New York City became the main British stronghold in America during the war. After Rogers' Rangers ambushed and wiped out a unit of Continental dragoons under Benjamin Tallmadge in New Jersey, Tallmadge was confident that there was a breach in the patriot ranks, with that traitor being recruited by Major John Andre. As a result, Washington needed a man on the inside in New York, so Caleb Brewster recruited Abraham Woodhull into the revolutionary cause as a spy. Woodhull found out from Major Edmund Hewlett that the British were planning a raid on Meigs Harbor, where a patriot safehouse was located, and he passed this information to Brewster, who delivered it to Tallmadge.

Battle
The commander of the raid on Meigs Harbor was Captain John Graves Simcoe, who led a detachment of the 40th Regiment of Foot to attack the safehouse. Their soldiers fired on the house through the windows, firing two volleys before moving in with bayonets. When they entered the house, nobody was found, as the patriots had already been warned. Suddenly, militiamen in the trees and some Continentals opened fire on the British, ambushing them. Simcoe was shot through the left leg and attempted to crawl away, but he was captured by Caleb Brewster. No British regulars (apart from Simcoe) survived the ambush, which ensured that the leaders of the revolution would be safe from capture.

Aftermath
The raid was a disaster, and Simcoe was held as a prisoner-of-war until a later prisoner exchange. Following the raid, Woodhull was recruited by Washington as the leader of the "Culper Ring", a spy network in New York, and the Americans were frequently able to dodge British raids and evade capture.